Life of Matthew Parker (Strype, 1821)/Book III/Chapter X
This is an enhanced reading edition of Chapter X of Book III of John Strype's The Life and Acts of Matthew Parker, the First Archbishop of Canterbury in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1821), prepared for AnglicanWiki. The text has been proofread against the 1821 printed edition. Marginal notes, which in the original serve as a running index, have been omitted; evident errors introduced in transcription have been corrected; the spelling, grammar, and substance of Strype's text are otherwise preserved as printed. Descriptive section headings, English renderings of the Latin passages (the Latin being retained), and editorial notes have been added for the reader's convenience. Strype's own notes appear as ordinary footnotes; editorial notes are separately marked, and are never to be confused with Strype's text.
Some are sequestered and silenced. Crowley, Minister of Cripplegate, one of them. The stir made by him in his church. Sent for and censured by the Archbishop. Some account of Crowley. The Archbishop clamoured against. His protestation and resolution.
The Sequestered Ministers
BUT let us turn our eyes to these sequestered and silenced Ministers, and see how they behaved themselves, and what course they took. Some of these sely recusants[ed 1] (I use the very words of the Archbishop) said now, that they thought not that ever the matter, in such scarcity of Ministers, should have been forced: and some began to repent. One of them was with the Archbishop two days after, to be admitted again to his parish, and promised conformity: but he repelled him, till he had him bound with two good sureties of his own parish: and so he was. The said Minister told the Archbishop, that there would more come to that point. And them also the Archbishop intended so to order. But the most part of those recusants he wished out of the ministry, as being "mere ignorant and vain heads;" as his Grace wrote to the Secretary.[ed 2] And indeed the Archbishop reckoned, that by what he had done, and by making this determination known abroad, the speech raised would soon cease, and the offence assuage, and more peace and order follow, as he signified to his friend: but he was deceived.[ed 3]
The Stir at Cripplegate
For but four or five days after, viz. April 2, one Crowley, Minister of the parish of St. Giles, Cripplegate, London, and one of those that had been suspended, this person and his Curate gave a great occasion of much trouble in his church. A certain corpse being to be buried in his church, divers Clerks were in their surplices attending, to sing as accustomably they used, and as my Lord of London[ed 4] before had prescribed, namely, to wear surplices within the churches. But Crowley quarreled with them for their porters coats,[ed 5] as he called them, and said, he would shut the doors against them. And one Sayer, an Alderman's deputy, also assisted Crowley, and used words likewise to that purpose. He seemed to be an honest man, but too much leaning from the surplice. But the singing-men on the other hand made resistance against Crowley, willing to go on with their business: insomuch that the deputy threatened them to set them fast by the feet,[ed 6] if they should break the peace. These things caused a great uproar. At length the singing-men shrunk away; and they then had some quietness, though with shrewd stomachs.
The Archbishop Summons the Offenders
But the noise of this coming to the ears of the Archbishop and the other Commissioners; and complaint being made hereof by the Lord Mayor to him, desiring him to examine the cause; he summoned Crowley and others to appear before them, April the 4th, to hear the cause: resolving to execute punishment, if he found the deserts of them to be such, as that they gave such occasion of tumult among the people so gathered together. And that the rather, considering the time, being now just upon enjoining the wearing of that garment. Signifying withal to the Secretary, that he trusted that neither the Queen's Majesty nor her Council would charge their doings herein, as guilty of any severity or lack of prudence. Which charges, it seems, some of the Court had been wont before to cast in their teeth.
The Examination of Crowley
At the examination was present, with the Archbishop, the Bishop of London. They found that Crowley quarreled first with the singing-men. In their examination of him, there fell from him several fond paradoxes, that tended to anabaptistical opinions. As, to have a motion in conscience to preach in the church (being not deprived) without extern vocation: and saying, as pastor, he would resist the wolf, meaning the surplice-men. The Commissioners asked him, if he would resist a Minister so sent to them. He said, that till he was discharged, meaning from his living by deprivation, his conscience would so move him. And thereupon desired to be discharged. The Archbishop seeing his desire, did presently, without any more ado, discharge him of his flock and parish. Then he fled to this, that he would be deprived by order of law. Which the Archbishop told him was to say, he would be deprived, and yet not be deprived. Then he seemed to be desirous to have the glory to be committed to prison, rather than he would grant to suffer such a wolf to come to his flock. But the Archbishop, as he told the Secretary, dulled his glory.
Crowley's Punishment
And yet for some severity, being in suspense, they charged him to keep his house, and remain under confinement at home: that so they might stay his resistance of any that should come to officiate at his church with the surplice. As for the deputy, they bound him in an hundred pounds to be ready at calling, when the Queen's Council should call for either of them, to judge of their doings. And so he and the Bishop of London dismissed them all, advertising them to be obedient. So gentle was our Archbishop in his censure of so great a fault as quarreling (and, it may be, coming to strokes) in God's house. But he reckoned the suspension and secret prison would be some terror. He imagined, that the Secretary might think that they had done too little, and he doubted not but that that side would think it too much.
How long he was confined I know not, only I find him remaining imprisoned in his own house, April 12th: when the Archbishop gave the Secretary a further account of the matter; which was, that he could do no less, considering his behaviour and speech, that "he would not suffer the wolf to come to his flock." And therefore to prevent his resistance they committed him. And the next Sunday he sent Mr. Bickley, his Chaplain, to preach in his parish: whom they heard quietly. And a Minister, thither sent, was received with his surplice.
Some Account of Crowley
This Crowley was once a stationer, but bred at the University of Oxford, and for his parts and good disposition to religion, was under King Edward ordained a Minister by Ridley, Bishop of London;[ed 7] and in Queen Mary's days was an exile in Frankford.[ed 8] He was a man of note among the Dissenters long after this; for I find him and Field, and Charke, and one Hern, in the year 1582, very diligent in visiting and disputing with certain Priests in the Tower.
Crowley and the Popish Priests in the Tower
And Crowley particularly took a great deal of pains with one of them named Kirby;[ed 9] endeavouring to bring him off from his opinion of the lawfulness of deposing princes by the Pope. Crowley also was one of those that attended them to execution. There he laboured to convince Kirby of the falseness of his principle that he was going to death for. And that from Rom. xiii. and the beginning; and from the words of Christ to Pilate, Joh. xix. 10, 11. Urging thence, that princes, having their authority from God alone, could not be deposed by any, but God alone. But while Crowley was discoursing this to Kirby, he demanded of him, whether, if a prince were guilty of Turcism,[ed 10] atheism, or infidelity, he might not be lawfully deposed, (which question he had asked him before in the Tower.) To which Crowley and the rest of the preachers answered learnedly, and in the negative. Whereat Kirby cried out, O Mr. Crowley, Mr. Crowley! and there paused, as if, saith the historian,[1] that Mr. Crowley had agreed with him in this point, in his conference with him in the Tower. So that Crowley was fain to justify himself there, saying to one standing by, that when Kirby had propounded this question to him in the Tower, his answer was, "That if any prince fell into any such kind of error, that prince were indeed corrigible. But of whom? not of any other earthly prince, but of that heavenly Prince who gave him his authority; who seeing him abuse it in any way, corrects him in his justice." And thus much for Crowley; only further that he wrote divers books; and died 1588, and was buried in the chancel of his parish church of Cripplegate.[ed 11]
The Archbishop Clamoured Against
The Dissenters, upon this round dealing of the Archbishop with them, and expecting no favour to be obtained from him under any less condition than plain submission and conformity, conceived a great ill-will against him; and derived the blame from the Queen, from the Secretary, and every body else, upon him alone. The talk now much increased, and the Archbishop alone, they said, was in fault. He indeed, in his expostulation with many of them, signified to them their disobedience to the Queen. Wherein because they saw the danger, if they should lay the blame upon her, they ceased to impute it to the Queen; saying, that were it not for the Archbishop's calling on her, she was indifferent. And most of them likewise dared not name the Secretary in this tragedy, because many of them were to have his help in their suits. They said, my Lord of London was their own, and was but brought in against his will: and that he, the Archbishop alone, was the stirrer and incenser. And that my Lord of Durham[ed 12] would be against them all; and would give over his bishopric, rather than it should take place in his diocese. They said also, that my Lord of Leicester[ed 13] should move and obtain the Queen; and that this was now done in his absence. That Mr. Cole, probably Leicester's Chaplain, or belonging to some other great courtier, was then at Court in his hat and short cloak; who would overthrow all their attempts, [to enjoin the using of the apparel.]
Their Application to the Court
So that now, as we may collect hence, their recourse was altogether to the Court, where they had so well sped before: and very industrious were their practices there to get this enterprise overthrown and great their hopes thereof.
The Archbishop's Protestation
The Archbishop signified all this to the Secretary, April the 7th; wishing to understand from him what likelihood there might be of this great expectation. As for his own part, he professed, "That whatsoever he had done, and did, was bonâ conscientiâ;[ed 14] that he regarded God's honour, and the public quiet. That he wished obedience to the Queen's Highness, and her laws. Which was the greatest estimation her Highness could have among her people. And that if this matter should be overturned, according to all these great hopes, he said, he was at a point to be used and abused. Nam scio nos Episcopos in hunc usum positos esse,[ed 15] as he added. We be the stiles,[ed 16] over which men will soonest leap. And if we be thus backed, [meaning, thus slenderly backed, or rather not backed at all,] there will be fewer Winchesters, as is desired." For that was one of the odious phrases these men bestowed upon the Bishops that urged uniformity, calling them Winchesters;[ed 17] pointing to Stephen Gardiner, that bloody persecuting Bishop of Winchester in Queen Mary's reign. But when he told the Secretary, there would be fewer Winchesters, if they were no better backed, he intimated that he saw that the favour shewed to these men tended to the overthrow of all Bishops, and that he feared it would end there. "But for my part, as he proceeded, so that my Prince may win honour either by standing or relenting, I will be very gladly lapis offensionis.[ed 18] Sed interim cum Dominus sit mihi adjutor, non timebo quid mihi faciat homo.[ed 19] But he was not, he said, amused, or danked,[ed 20] Fremat mundus, ruat cælum."[ed 21]
Notes
- ↑ Raphael Holinshed, Chronicles.
Editorial Notes
- ↑ sely = poor, simple, wretched: Strype is quoting Parker's own contemptuous word for the nonconforming ministers.
- ↑ William Cecil, the Queen's Secretary of State, Parker's regular correspondent throughout this history.
- ↑ The events of this chapter fall in April 1566 (Old Style).
- ↑ Edmund Grindal, Bishop of London.
- ↑ Crowley's sneering name for the surplices.
- ↑ i.e. to set them in the stocks.
- ↑ Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London, burnt at Oxford in 1555.
- ↑ Frankfurt am Main, the German city where many of the Marian exiles gathered.
- ↑ Named only as Kirby in the text; likely Luke Kirby, the seminary priest executed in 1582.
- ↑ i.e. Mohammedanism; "Turk" was the contemporary shorthand for a Muslim.
- ↑ Robert Crowley (c. 1518–1588): stationer and printer turned Puritan minister and poet, as the narrative itself establishes.
- ↑ James Pilkington, Bishop of Durham.
- ↑ Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester.
- ↑ bonâ conscientiâ — "with a good conscience."
- ↑ Nam scio nos Episcopos in hunc usum positos esse — "For I know that we bishops are set for this use."
- ↑ A stile is a set of steps for climbing over a fence: Parker's image is that bishops are made to be trampled over.
- ↑ A Puritan term of abuse for conforming bishops, after Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester under Queen Mary, notorious as a persecutor.
- ↑ lapis offensionis — "a stone of offence" (Isa. viii. 14).
- ↑ Sed interim cum Dominus sit mihi adjutor, non timebo quid mihi faciat homo — "But meanwhile, since the Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man shall do unto me" (Ps. cxviii. 6; Heb. xiii. 6).
- ↑ Kept as printed: amused (diverted, put off) or danked (damped, discouraged).
- ↑ Fremat mundus, ruat cælum — "Let the world rage, let heaven fall."
Source: John Strype, The Life and Acts of Matthew Parker, the First Archbishop of Canterbury in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1821), Vol. I, Book III. Enhanced reading edition: section headings, Latin translations, verified internal links, and editorial notes added per the AnglicanWiki Editorial Guidelines for Historical Texts. Strype's text faithfully transcribed from the Google Books scan; spelling and substance as in the original.